Jack Marriott is number 1500
1500 what? He’s the 1500th player to make a competitive first team appearance for Reading, by stepping on the pitch versus Port Vale on 30 August 2025. And this milestone has been recognised by the club, by presenting Jack with a celebratory Citizen watch.
Several clubs have been delving into their pasts and coming up with what are generally known as Legacy Shirt Number Series. Effectively, it’s a list, in date order, of all players who have made a senior appearance for the club. Fortunately, we’ve had experts on hand to do the same for us.
Nigel Meek has been compiling a comprehensive statistical database for many years, and this has been the foundation stone of our Legacy Series. To the vexed question of what counts as a competitive first team match, STAR members Alan Sedunary and Roger Titford, both historians of the club, added their informed views. There’s also a largely agreed protocol amongst football historians nationally, which includes the rule that you only get one number no matter how many times you re-sign for the club.
And so our story begins, not in 1871 – we didn’t play any matches, nor in 1872 – when we only played challenge / friendly matches, but on 7 November 1877. It was our first FA Cup tie (we beat South Norwood 2-0) and, following the convention of numbering from the goalkeeper outwards, our number 1 player was Stanley Hayward. You can find out more about the remarkable Stan here https://star-reading.org/heritage-history/hall-of-fame-1870s-1910s
It took 13 years to rack up the first 100 names. We were on 116 when we joined the Southern League in 1894, 489 when we joined the Football league in 1920, 695 when football resumed in 1945 after the war, reaching 1000 in 1986 and 1500 in 2025. The list seems to be growing faster and faster. It took 30 years to get from 800 to 1000 but only 12 years to get from 1300 to 1500. That’s a function of more substitutes and shorter careers.
Numbers to look out for: Sylvan Anderton 764 (who we reckon is our oldest surviving player), Maurice Evans 794, Steve Death 889, Robin Friday 917, Martin Hicks 953, Trevor Senior 986, Michale Gilkes 991, Ady Williams 1032, Steve Sidwell 1196, Noel Hunt 1246, Mikele Leigertwood 1273, Emi Martinez 1386 – the only World Cup winner, and Tom Dollery 660 – the only international cricketer on the list as far as we know. There are a few Reverends and some OBEs and MBEs too!
The full list should be appearing on the club website shortly. STAR is looking at ways of presenting current and future debutants with some form of memento of their Legacy Shirt Number, a physical reminder of their place on the long and great list of representatives of our club.